IDF, Palestinians battle in West Bank refugee camps

Israeli army soldiers hold a position inside a Palestinian house at the border of the Balata refugee camp, early Friday.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli infantry and tanks continued operations in the West Bank on Saturday in and around the Jenin and Balata refugee camps in what the Israeli army is calling an operation to root out terrorists and Palestinians call "widespread aggression."

In the first major incursions into Palestinian refugee camps in 17 months of violence, forces rolled into a refugee camp in Jenin on Friday and continued to battle in the Balata camp, near Nablus, which Israeli forces moved into Thursday.

One Palestinian was killed in Balata and four Palestinians were killed in Jenin in the fighting Friday, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. One was a 10-year-old girl, who was shot dead as she was standing at the window in her house, the sources said. The group also reported 46 injuries in Balata and 45 in Jenin.

After its incursion into the Jenin camp Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said: "The goal of this activity aims to stop terrorists and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure within the camp."

The IDF said there is continuous fighting between the two sides in the refugee camps, including heavy exchanges of fire and the detonation of a number of roadside bombs against the Israeli forces.

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In a separate incident, a a 7-year-old boy was fatally shot in the stomach as he watched skirmishes between Israeli troops and Palestinians near the Erez Crossing, the Palestine Red Crescent said. The Israeli army said a group of Palestinian youths approached an Israeli tank near the checkpoint, and soldiers fired their weapons into the air. The army is investigating the Palestinian claims.

The Palestinian Authority criticized the incursions, saying the Palestinian people have "the right to resistance" and to defend their land. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called Friday for rapid international action "before the region explodes."

The Jerusalem daily Ha'aretz reports an Army Radio account that says the Fatah movement threatened to launch Qassam-2 rockets at Israeli cities if the army stays in the camps.

Fatah is the mainstream faction and Palestinian nationalist movement of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is dedicated to the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

Gunfire exchanged between Israelis, Palestinians

IDF forces began their assault on the Jenin camp Thursday but did not enter it until Friday.

The operations followed a Wednesday suicide bombing carried out by a Palestinian woman. Israeli media reported she was a resident of the Balata refugee camps.

Wednesday's was the latest in a series of attacks at Israeli checkpoints. The Israeli military has responded with punishing attacks on the Palestinian infrastructure, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced last Thursday that Israel will create buffer zones intended to provide security.

Within hours of the start of the Israeli incursion, intense Palestinian gunfire targeted the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem, IDF said, saying the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were firing from the Arab town of Beit Jala. Four residents were wounded and schools remained closed Friday, IDF said.

Palestinians consider Gilo occupied land that belongs to Beit Jala.

Saying they were responding to Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attacks, Israeli helicopter gunships fired on Thursday at the power plant for Beit Jala, knocking out power and injuring three people.

The brigades are the military wing of Arafat's Fatah movement. The group has launched a series of terror attacks in recent months.

The United States and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan are urging both sides to use restraint. "I call on the IDF to withdraw from these camps immediately, and I implore both sides to refrain from further actions which may endanger yet more civilian lives," Annan said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States has been in contact with Israel regarding the refugee camp incursions and has urged "utmost restraint to avoid harm to civilians."

The IDF said the camps "are central bases for terrorist factors responsible for the murder of scores of Israeli civilians."

Helicopters and tanks were involved in the attacks, but much of the fighting is being done on foot in the camps, which are crisscrossed by narrow alleys.

The operations on Thursday resulted in the deaths of 13 Palestinians and one Israeli, according to the Israeli army and Palestinian security sources.

Saudi peace plan discussed

As the violence continued, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dampened the enthusiasm over a Middle East peace proposal floated by Saudi Arabia, telling The Washington Times that the proposal is not new and it is not likely to work.

Mubarak is arriving in Washington this weekend for a visit and is expected to discuss the Middle East situation with President Bush.

Under the Saudi proposal, the Arab world would make peace with Israel in an exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territories it occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War.

CIA Director George Tenet and a senior State Department official talked Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah about the peace initiative, U.S. officials said. (Full story)

Boucher said the Saudi proposal is both important and "consistent with the vision Secretary (Colin) Powell laid out last fall," but he added that the plan's issues must be negotiated.